William Crowninshield Endicott

William Crowninshield Endicott ( born November 19, 1826 in Salem, Massachusetts, † May 6, 1900 in Boston, Massachusetts ) was an American politician and Secretary of War under President Grover Cleveland.

Life

William Crowninshield Endicott, son of William P. and Mary ( Putnam ) Endicott, was born in Salem. He received his PhD in 1847 at Harvard University, attended from 1849 to 1850, the Harvard Law School and worked from 1850 onwards in a court in Massachusetts.

On 13 December 1859 he married Ellen Peabody in Salem, the daughter of George and Clarissa ( Endicott ) Peabody. Her grandfather, Joseph Peabody († 1844), was a respected shipowner in Salem, who had made the import of pepper from Sumatra a fortune. William and Ellen had two children.

After unsuccessful candidate in 1879 as a Democrat for Congress, Endicott served until 1882 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Then he stood for election as governor in 1884 and failed. Subsequently, he was appointed Minister of War. In this position, he served 1885-1889 under Grover Cleveland. Endicott oversaw many important changes in the organization of the United States Army, including the establishment of a system for monitoring the transportation officer.

William Endicott also led the Endicott Board for the fortifications, which should improve the models for the formation of the American coastal defenses in the period of the Spanish- American War.

William Crowninshield Endicott, died on May 6, 1900 in Boston. He was buried with his wife in the Endicott solder on the Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem.

Family

His daughter, Mary Crowninshield Endicott, first married to British politician Joseph Chamberlain in 1888 and later the Anglican clergyman William Hartley Carnegie 1916.

He was a direct descendant of Governor John Endecott and a distant relative of Governor Endicott Peabody.